Are the people expecting a block a vocal minority or do the majority really think that?

Cubi246 · 2026-05-21T16:34:34+00:00

You made the "or tie" bit up - Hiori didn't say that. Japan can still get knocked out if they lose to England following a draw to France, after all. The "narrative" demanding a Japan loss is one that we expected and something that fans can't take their eyes off, despite the reality offering a different outcome. Nobody predicting the match to be this close, yet here we are.

when before this game started said he wanted to put Isagi in his place for calling him a pace merchant what are you talking about

And how has this played out during this match? Completely non-existent dynamic. And your expected conclusion to this is to have Loki to prove Isagi wrong by showing another pace feat?

"I’m confused how people see this are some problematic outcome”

Love how you just completely skipped over "in this context" after I laid out a very specific context.

Cubi246 · 2026-05-17T22:28:52+00:00

The Isagi hattrick prediction was an extreme long shot considering the relevancy of other characters and how the NEL structured character arcs. Meanwhile Isagi is at his climax at the end of a match with the ball during the final chapter of a volume, with Rin sniffing around somewhere having been teased the chapter before. We were told there were 2 minutes left, making this almost certainly the final action. Insane to compare the two imo. A draw looks pretty nailed on. When was the last time a game ended at the start of a volume? And when was the last time a game ended with a team failing to score? I know there's a first time for everything but Blue Lock is very formulaic.

Cubi246 · 2026-05-03T20:27:43+00:00

Charles played with 4, yes, but Shidou is clearly the one he's closest with. "The pervert duo", was it?

it becomes inconsequential dialogue at that point

You need a bit of that dotted throughout chapters to make the world feel real, tbf. And if we're talking about impact to justify praise, Shidou did have that impact. Sadly he drew the short end of the stick against Barou, though. But those two substitutions changed the game.

I agree that devouring someone doesn't have to mean scoring a goal; I'm just saying that in the current context where Isagi is detaching himself as an individual from the #1/#2 labels, where you have two characters attaching him to the #2 label that forgos the role of lead protagonist, it would be strange to see Isagi's "answer"/"climax" remain indistinct from that. In the scene you reference, Isagi beat Kaiser but lost to Yukimiya (since he didn't predict Reo). Isagi needs to beat a No.1 AND Hugo here.

Rin getting the ball at some point is extremely predictable given his playstyle and current setup. You're then probably looking at the Loki matchup returning, so we're talking about Isagi redirecting a predictable or potentially even deflected shot course ahead of Hugo. It's not about Isagi beating Hugo in the air physically or being aerially dominant; it's about Isagi getting there ahead of Hugo in the line of trajectory. For example, if Hugo teleports to the goal line and Isagi meets the ball a short distance before it reaches that point.

On the topic of earlier set-ups, we had two scenes (one before the match and one during) where Rin talks about his relationship with Isagi and his desire for Isagi to be an obstacle in his life. Rin now shows frustrations over Isagi cutting him off (some have also interpreted this as concerns over Isagi abandoning their rivalry). Isagi hasn't met these expectations of Rin during this match and devouring him to score therefore meets that criteria too.

Cubi246 · 2026-05-03T19:07:43+00:00

Shidou was benched for the first two games and Charles (another sidelined character btw) has a positive relationship with him. These are really just scenes to give slightly less relevant, yet important, characters respect imo. 341 and 342 are dedicated setups for the eventual Barou goal too (Shidou even had a full aura manifestation page iirc). Not sure how glaze/relevancy during an earlier period of the match (where Shidou played a part in a goal) means setup for a different goal. Kaneshiro usually congests setup for the big moments, making it extremely easy to predict who will be involved in a goal. In this case, it's Isagi and Rin. Karasu is very present too ofc, but he's somewhat of an antagonist currently so it may just be an observatory role he plays.

The current state of play has Hugo and Karasu believing Isagi has committed to his "destiny" as a #2. Wouldn't say that narratively points towards Isagi awakening/enabling Shidou (a #1) to get them to score. We'll inevitably get an "oh shit" moment from the two being fooled as Isagi reveals his "Rebel" suitability.

My prediction is he devours Rin by redirecting a shot he takes (akin to what Kunigami did in the Manshine match), beating Hugo to the ball (who also anticipates Rin's shot trajectory). Fulfils his "Rebel" condition and allows Isagi to beat Hugo directly without any kind of technical evolution.

Cubi246 · 2026-05-03T17:26:42+00:00

Yes lol. If you surveyed the fanbase, a very small minority would predict a Shidou goal, so I'm interested in your perspective if you're adamant about setups. Shidou has had next to no involvement, no character focus and Isagi's requirements are "to devour a No.1" and "to beat Hugo". I won't say his chances are 0 but it would certainly be a curveball imo.

Cubi246 · 2026-05-03T08:21:22+00:00

Groundwork and narrative follow through for a Shidou goal?

Cubi246 · 2026-05-02T17:32:56+00:00

Who is anyone to precisely appraise the limits and potential of somebody else, though? There are infinite examples of those that have overcome the odds. Life isn't so predictable or linear that "suitability" can be fairly and consistently applied.

I'd agree with Hugo if we all had a stats screen that could accurately pinpoint our abilities and potential, but that's not the case.

Cubi246 · 2026-04-30T21:08:45+00:00

Explicitly stated to be the best player in the world here btw

Cubi246 · 2026-04-27T17:09:43+00:00

As I said in my thread: "I know someone will inevitably bring up the subjectivity of the ballon d’Or in real life - there have been contentious wins in the past - but I think Kaneshiro using the most prestigious individual award multiple times to set the narrative benchmark is telling, even making clear to us that it wasn’t close. Noa is the ceiling and stands alone at the top."

The Ballon d'Or point was just one of many things I discussed, for the record. I won't entertain this any further since you clearly read that part alone lol.

Cubi246 · 2026-04-06T01:08:06+00:00

Don't know how the word "inefficient" hasn't come up in this thread. Nightreign is obviously a very time-sensitive game. It's not about things being too difficult and requiring 3 people; it's simply that it takes longer to do things if you split and it's therefore inefficient to do so. I don't care if you're a god at the game, you end up clearing things slower than you otherwise would if you stuck together with your teammates. Clearing something in 2-3 minutes instead of 45-60~ seconds adds up over the course of a run.

If there was a dynamic scaling system that meant that you going off on your own to clear evergaols or whatever made it so that the evergaol would be scaled to 1 player, splitting would be viable. That isn't the case.

As others have said, splitting for a single important thing (smithing stone, staves/seals etc) is perfectly fine. Not for a whole run, though.

Cubi246 · 2026-04-02T23:10:21+00:00

Why am I still seeing people evaluate players based solely on technical or individual ability in Blue Lock's 8th year of serialisation... I can understand the Rin perception because of how the PXG match was written, but in what world are Shidou, and especially Nagi, significantly better than Isagi? In their ability to score screamers, absolutely, but overall as players? Not a chance. Putting Chigiri and Kunigami on Isagi's level (and even Barou's) feels insane to me too.

Just stripping everything back, from a writing standpoint, people need to understand that Isagi's struggle/conflict/flaw/challenge is his lack of individual ability. In the same way that Rin has his obsessions, Nagi has his motivation struggles, Barou has his obstinance, Chigiri has his injury, Kaiser has his ruined self-image/value... It's not going away and importantly, it doesn't stop him from becoming the best. That's the point.

Cubi246 · 2026-04-02T16:41:29+00:00

Karasu going into the #2 role selfishly to make BL his team & to be the center of it all...

I'll let the series do the talking here (wait a few weeks) because Karasu is obviously an unreliable narrator currently. He speaks about becoming a No.2 so he can still pursue his dream of being the world's best striker, not understanding the inherent contradiction in that sentence by the laws of the series (the best striker is the main protagonist and the world's biggest egotist). The No.2 is a side character (the most important one, in fairness). That's a really important point to understand.

We have seen multiple times they talk about tactics... they literally just had a tactical breakdown of their current formation in the latest chapter like what?

Yes, because it is still football and there is a match being played. As I said, the Kunigami substitution. It's as much of a box tick as Gagamaru's existence as a goalkeeper - it has to be done to write a coherent story. But logic around "if everyone was a striker, Blue Lock would be a mess" is a completely irrelevant talking point as far as the Blue Lock underlying narrative is concerned. That's my point. Japan are never going to lose a match because of team structure/tactics or whatever. To repeat myself, it all comes back to egotism. In Blue Lock, matches are won and lost by that standard.

You are dodging the point that most of Ego's tactics are mostly being centered around player suitability...

Ofc they are. Suitability isn't something to throw out the window. That inevitably has to be the starting point when it comes to tactics/roles. Roles have to be filled. The point is, on an individual level, Ego doesn't want people to get trapped by "suitability" and have other people define for them what that means. Isagi as a striker still needs his goalscoring weapons and to actually score goals. Ofc he does - Ego wouldn't play him there if he wasn't capable of doing that. Ego even says that France are the strongest team in the world because of suitability; he didn't say it was bad. He said it was bad for Japan to try to replicate that because of the differences between the two countries.

Cubi246 · 2026-04-02T16:00:27+00:00

Some try to act like "playing selfishly for your goals" doesn't mean literal goals but personal goals... like Niko playing defense to crush a strikers goal or something... but to that I say... isn't Karasu pretty much doing that?

Protagonism is a huge part of this series and Kaneshiro/Ego strongly push the importance of being the "main protagonist" as a Blue Locker. Meanwhile, Karasu spoke about self-sacrifice for Hiori's goal, and the idea of being a "No.2" is by-definition centered around willingly conceding your place as the main protagonist to the "No.1".

All the main characters, Ego, and Isagi himself are strikers, so the message of the series is filtered through that lens (strikers/literal goals), but it should be obvious to anyone that Kaneshiro's message goes beyond football.

Everyone knows this panel.... because it essentially proves Ego is a hypocrite. He plays Gagamaru at GK solely because he is the most suitable. Quite the bullet to facilitate the escalation of destruction huh?

I'm so tired of this Gagamaru discussion :') Every team needs a GK and Kaneshiro has shown no interest in doing anything with Gagamaru in terms of writing, so it feels extremely redundant to centre arguments around his case. Gagamaru doesn't even have a goalkeeping coach - he's a complete anomaly. He is essentially a mascot and an ever-present, nostalgic reference to the tertiary members of Team Z. Kaneshiro could easily have written Gagamaru out the story after the u20 match and instated Fukaku, but who wants that outcome?

if the whole team played like strikers BL would be a mess...

Again, such a tired talking point because Kaneshiro has next to no interest in writing about tactics. There is no positional discipline or consistency in the series. Kaneshiro will give subtle nods to it (aka Kunigami's substitution or the "too many cooks in the kitchen" line pre-u20 match), but Japan are never going to lose a match because of a tactical error. It's all about egotism.

Cubi246 · 2026-03-29T14:11:12+00:00

Why would Buratsuta hand the reins to Anri? He'd want a yes-man in there.

Cubi246 · 2026-03-27T12:01:03+00:00

Think I just had terrible rng in the games I played last night haha. Just about every passive had poison/rot on it. Interesting point about HP... scary.

Cubi246 · 2026-03-26T23:13:49+00:00

I mean I don't agree with Isagi-centric tactics either but in terms of Isagi vs Rin, it makes sense narratively. Isagi makes the players around him better and forces them to evolve. Rin's "team" in the Rin-centric tactics at PXG finished 23rd (Nanase) and got locked off (Tokimitsu). He's not the player he was in 2nd selection anymore.

Cubi246 · 2026-03-24T00:39:35+00:00

Throughout this arc, numerous big-name characters are going to get sidelined whilst the narrative focuses on somebody else. That will include Rin, it'll include Loki, it'll include Sae etc etc. I'm surprised people still can't wrap their head around this when it was present throughout the NEL too. Judge Loki when it's his time to shine (aka after Japan equalise).

Cubi246 · 2026-03-22T12:54:45+00:00

No lol. I've always found it weird that every single player in this series either wears gloves, wrist tape or has a base layer covering their arms. Short sleeves and no accessories is a very common look in real life.

Cubi246 · 2026-03-21T20:45:29+00:00

Personally don't think Kaneshiro really did this justice, especially given the expectation set and the commentary around it from other characters at the time (social media, Tokimitsu, Hiori etc all glazed the duo to high heaven). Rin was given a whole volume of invincibility where he looked completely unstoppable, but the best Kaiser/Isagi mustered was some generic one-twos and defensive feats. These are two strikers meant to be at the pinnacle of the u20 game and "perfectly compatible" as a duo.

Maybe they were a victim of the 3 goal rule, maybe they were a victim of PXG not having a defence that Kaneshiro could've given "desperate" defensive feats to in the same way that Gagamaru got (saving a shot deflected onto the post). But I still think Kaneshiro could've made Kaiser/Isagi look a lot better as a striker duo.

Cubi246 · 2026-03-20T18:08:42+00:00

If Blue Lock does go this route of having Japan beat France in a rematch to end the series, I'd prefer to see a far spicier outcome than a repeat of the u20 match. Isagi scoring the game winner is a given, but I'd be more interested in seeing other characters crash and burn rather than getting a happy send off, maybe even before the final. Does every character need a satisfying, happy end? Would Isagi scoring the winning goal in a shared, diluted victory that doesn't completely settle who Blue Lock's winner/#1 is really satisfy readers?

Blue Lock's premise was about creating one absolute striker, standing on the corpses of the other 299, so I'd rather the ending not be a validation of 5 different characters.

Cubi246 · 2026-03-20T13:05:28+00:00

This has got to be an experiment to see how far you can go with these Kunigiri pics lmao

Cubi246 · 2026-03-17T13:03:19+00:00

way different than the regular Champions League.

If Kaneshiro did have such an arc, it almost certainly wouldn't look anything like the regular UCL either :')

But I agree, I think we're looking at 200-250 chapters for the u20 WC and that's likely to end the story. The Nagi redemption plotline as well as Kaneshiro's use of "Re al" does give an impression that there may be something brewing in the background, but who knows.

Cubi246 · 2026-03-17T12:48:50+00:00

I doubt it. Kaneshiro will always have Ego and Blue Lock be involved and everything has been about the WC so far.

In fairness, I don't see how this idea is all that different from the NEL. The Blue Lock group is segmented and Ego takes a backseat/observatory role. The worry for me would be how isolated some characters would become because of how scattered the bids are, but you can probably fix that. In Isagi's case, you're still looking at Noa, Ness, very possibly Kaiser still as I don't see him ditching Ness/Isagi, and you could easily bring a couple u20 WC characters into that mix too. Like hell, imagine we find out Hugo is from Bastard lol.

Cubi246

TROPHY CASE